Week Fifty Two, RB Graflex

Well here we are, the final week! There is a lot to get
through so let’s dive in. It may come across as a bit short hand but I need to
squeeze a lot in, stick with it! Back in week 25 I had tried to feature the
Graflex but it properly fell apart when the rather important cloth shutter tore
in two. I vowed then to rebuild it and bring it back, little did I know what I
had let myself in for.

Straight away I will introduce you to Erik Gould, I know him
from twitter and he is a Graflex nut! He, from the beginning jumped right in
with advice and help that was pivotal to what follows.

Quickly – The RB Graflex is one of the first SLR medium
format cameras, made from wood, nickel coated brass, and leather and vulcanised
silk. Held together with wood screws and glue. This one dates somewhere from
1910-25, interchangeable lens, waist level finder seen through a long leather
hood. Normally a plate film back but this one is setup for 6x9 format on 120
film via a removable cassette back. Apertures are set as normal on a lens ring
but the shutter is where it gets a little different and the root of my
problems. Simply a pair of rollers top and bottom house a long silk curtain
with 4 slots in it, it is wound on to the top one tensioning the 6 step spring
on the bottom one so when released it quickly winds back allowing one of the
slots to expose pre-determined exposure of the film, it uses the 4 differing
slots and 6 tension setting to produce 24 odd shutter speeds. That is the best
I can explain! Used by many famous
photographers and the press it has gained a cult following.

Back to week 25! I had a dead camera and no idea about how
to fix it. I had to either replace or fix the torn curtain. Curtains are as
rare as rocking horse poo so fixing seemed the only option, long story short
that man Erik jetted a piece of cloth from the USA followed by a mass of
collated info on repairs etc. I patched said curtain and refitted, now to set
its pre-tension, I followed the instructions and the bloody spring snapped!
Disaster, springs are rarer than the cloth so I was in a real fix! I finally
found a company called Springmasters in Birmingham to whom I sent the bottom
roller-spring combo to custom make one. In no time I got back a metre length of
off the shelf spring they thought might work. I measured cut and shaped it then
refitted to the body, blow me down it worked, it worked well. I set about
gluing, cleaning and oiling everything else till I thought it was ready. I videoed the curtain in action and emailed
to Erik, He thought it was a tad quick so I ran a test roll of my daughter,
sure enough underexposed and I struggled with focusing. I let some tension off
and ran a second roll, still too fast and the focus seemed to be the camera at
fault so, more tension off till I though it acted exactly like Erik advised and
I raised the ground glass until focus matched the film plain using a makeshift
ground glass out of tracing paper much as I had done with the Bronica. I
decided to leave it at that until this week. I can tell you it took dozens and
dozens of hours, sweat and tears! Also many conversations with Erik who was
amazing and I cannot thank enough, honestly a complete legend, I must have
bored the crap out of him.

Here we are then, a strange camera the likes I have never
used before and just a week to get to grips, not helped by the loss of my spot
meter, I would have to use my back up incident meter. I had already formed, as
you can imagine a firm bond with this camera so I was keen to get it right. We
were set for changeable weather in the form of storm Brian so I would shoot
whenever I could and just see what came out. First roll Rollei RPX400 B&W.
I fumbled around for a day or two finally getting the 8 frames and nervously
developed it. It was ok as far as it goes, it proved the camera worked despite
my school boy errors. Double exposure, fingers fouling moving parts, accidental
misfires, bad focusing etc. There were however some encouraging frames.

Roll 2 was again a 400, JCH Street Pan, more determined to
concentrate I set out for Dartmoor in strong winds and changeable light.
Several hours were spent around a Bronze Age settlement trying different
settings etc. I thought it had all gone much better but once developed I could
see not only had I struggled with exposures with this difficult contrasty film
but my focusing was off still. I decided to go with a third roll, my favoured
Ilford FP4+, I gave it everything! I really knuckled down to get things right.
I think I have too, I felt much better with this one and started to understand
the working process, it is very different. Having just scanned these before
writing I feel real satisfaction, in fact the whole 6 months were worth that
mushroom shot! The Kodak lens is really pleasing and sharp enough. When using
the camera there is undoubtedly a nostalgic feel, a little bit of folder, a
look of a box camera while being a WLF SLR, all my favourites in one vintage package!
The Graflex is staying with me so I have
plenty of time to get acquainted further. I hope you see the progress in the
images and I hope I can include the phone pics of the build progress. I have
however rambled for far too long – 52 weeks too long!

Thanks again Erik! Also Craig for the processing advice this
week and many others, and of course Russell without whom none of this would have
been possible!